#28 – Leading with Clarity, Curiosity, and Customer-Centricity with Rose Schamberger

From athlete to architect of transformation, Rose Schamberger shares her journey from professional volleyball to leading global tech teams in this powerful episode of Software Without Borders. Hosted by Andy Hilliard and Olivier Poulard, the conversation explores agile leadership, customer-centric development, and what it really takes to modernize software in today’s fast-changing world. Rose offers a playbook for growth-minded leaders ready to elevate their impact by aligning teams, simplifying processes, and staying relentlessly focused on the customer.

 

Key Takeaways:

1. Agile Is a Mindset, Not a Framework
   1. Rose and Olivier agree: following an Agile playbook isn’t enough. Success comes from adopting Agile values—feedback, iteration, simplicity, and ownership—regardless of process.
2. Customer Centricity Begins With Empathy
   1. Rose emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer journey. Engineers should “eat their own dog food,” sit with support teams, and interact with products like real users.
3. Decentralize Decision-Making, Centralize Vision
   1. Global teams thrive when each region has accountability and autonomy, but shares a unified direction. This alignment empowers faster, better decisions across time zones.
4. Value Over Code Elegance
   1. Rose challenges teams to prioritize customer outcomes over technical purity. The best software isn't the most elegant—it’s the most useful and adopted.
5. AI is a Tool, Not a Silver Bullet
   1. Generative AI is powerful but overhyped. Rose warns leaders not to chase tools without understanding the real problems they’re solving.
6. Cross-Functional Metrics Create Accountability
   1. Shared KPIs between product, marketing, and engineering—like customer adoption and satisfaction—drive aligned execution and true collaboration.
7. Modernization Requires Contextual Strategy
   1. Migrating to the cloud looks different for every product. Rose shares how both monolithic and microservices-based strategies can succeed—if aligned with customer needs.
8. Leadership Means Going to the People
   1. Rose and Olivier agree that leaders must proactively engage teams, not wait to be approached. It's about listening deeply, enabling growth, and leading from the front.

 

Chapter Markers:

00:00 – Introductions and Wine Club Jokes

06:00 – From Pro Volleyball to Product Leadership

13:30 – Motivations Behind Leading Digital Transformation

15:45 – Rose’s Product Development Philosophy

20:00 – Why Engineers Must Understand the 'Why'

22:00 – Real-World Cloud Modernization Stories

25:00 – What It Means to Be Truly Customer-Centric

30:00 – Customer Journey Empathy and Field Feedback

35:00 – Empowering Engineers to Be Co-Creators

40:00 – Aligning Global Teams with Clear Vision

42:30 – CI/CD and Cloud Strategy for Efficiency

47:00 – Connecting Customer Satisfaction to ROI

53:00 – OKRs, Cross-Functional Metrics, and Alignment

55:00 – Rose’s Take on the AI Hype and Future Trends

58:30 – Final Reflections and Thank You

 

Keywords:

software leadership, customer-centric development, agile mindset, agile software, digital transformation, product management, Rose Schamberger, Olivier Poulard, Andy Hilliard, global engineering teams, software modernization, software strategy, CI/CD automation, cloud transformation, feedback loops, engineering culture, software ROI, product innovation, agile team alignment, empathy in software development, Software Without Borders podcast, Accelerance podcast, technology executive interview, product owner mindset, user experience in software, tech podcast for leaders